Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-01-11
ON GRAPE CULTURE.
BONE FACTS ABOUT CALIFORNIAN
GROWING INDUSTRY.

Great Wide Green Fields of Grapes.
Little Left to VIII or Nature--"SIips"
or "Cuttings"-A Well Trimmed Vine
yard-Gathering the Fruit
am going TO set down some facts about
grapes and this very great industry which
have come across out here in the California
vineyards. In the first place, it may not
| be generally known that we gather two crops
| a year out here from the most CT our vines.
oat this is the case 1t seems strange to see the
great wide green fields of grapes still continue
green, as green it is possible for green to be,
all the season through without drop of
water, and 30 right on and blossom and bear
second crop so soon as the first one is
gathered; and it is a fact to store up in your
memory and set down to the credit of Cali
| fornia.
There are perhaps fifty kinds of vines here;
maybe I could safely double that number.
| But the most popular grape is Hungarian
| variety. We use no Spanish vines now ex-
| cept the hardy and honest old EMISSION grape
| And where the mission grape came from no
| one now can tell. OF course it is of Spanish
| origin, brought here by the monks; but it Is
not to be found in any part Of Spain now.
| This, the mission grape, which was for many
| years the only kind of grape grown in Cali
| fornia is not used for wine-making at all
| now, nor is it grown to any great extent.
But it is good table grape, and the few re-
manning vineyards of this variety are de
voted TO the table and to the making Of
| brandy.
| The great improvement in California wines
| within the last few years is due largely TO the
| improvement in the plant 1t would only
| lead TO confusion, and few would care to read
the long hist of rare grapes that you almost
| daily here about here in the heart of the
greatest grape land in the world, and SO
| viii not give the names. but the search for
rare and suitable grapes is Jealous and per-
sistcnt all over the world Men are kept con-
stantly travelling in Europe and Asia seeking
new varieties
MODERN CRAZE CULTURE.
The vermin which attacked and destroyed
the vines of France is a sort of louise which
| destroys the root of the vine. 1t has made its
appearance in California, but its advance has
been checked, and its further progress is not
| greatly feared. Still, it is conceded that the
Californian who claimed to have discovered G.
certain remedy, and secured patent for the
same, has not vet received the millions which
France and Italy offered as areward. l may
mention that when the panic incident to the
appearance of the verInin in the grape fields
here was at its height the grape growers re
sorted to the Missouri grapes with good re-
suits. The louise does not attack American
vines. only imported ones
But there is little left to the will or the
nature of the vine in modern grape culture.
You will have to tear down all the Chamber
ing vines which the old Greeks loved to pic
ture on their vases or in their poems. There
Is little left that is poetic in the grape here.
There is nothing that is even beautiful except
this one broad sea of green, and this is beauti,
full indeed when brought into sharp contrast
with the yellow and russell and tawny old
ll0n-hke hills which tower up and hang high
over these emerald seas of vine
The grape is not raised from either the
seed or root, but from slips" OF cuttings"
like the cane in the southern states. You
can cut off almost any part of grapevine
sand stick it in the ground, give it anything
like half a chance, and in less than three
Years it will he clinging to rock or stump
brier or bush, anything that is nearest cover
ing up with its wonderously beautiful leave:
| anu ltifiii lis dilSltS ana uEiN
features of whatever it clings TO, trying it.
best to make this beautiful world still more
beautiful. Another evidence of its sweet
feminnity. But after this cutting" has taker
root and had enc or two years of leisure ant
liberty in the nursery, it is dug up and set il
iegimental line, no more to run riot or grow
and reach out and cling. and cover up tht
follies and the faults of others.
A WELL TRIMMED VINEYARD.
$ These cuttings are now planted about a.
wide apart-one in each hill-as corn in tn,
great corn fields of the west And it is a
once cut down almost to the ground. As
said before, YOU must abandon all your OLE
picture ideas founded on Bible tales or ira
ditions from profane history. For the crap
in California is permitted to be only a stump
S Every year il is shorn down almost to tn
s ground. Out Wonder in the almost shore
e less sea of green grapevineS You can fin,
! stumps of grape trees almost as thick as YOU
t body But the vines are only of this year
h growth \ well trimmed vineyard in Cali
fornia, after the last crop is gathered, look
exactly like field OF stumps in a clearing.
Not much romance or beauty about that
But there is plenty of money and this is tn
way that pays best, and poetry must yield (
, utility.
y How much will one acre yield Well, i
i fapa valley they show YOU field that yield
+ fourteen tons of grapes to the acre. But thi
is an extraordinary yield. From eight to te
tons is the average crop. These grapes ar
4 sold by the ton They are sometimes sold q
| they stand; sometimes they are sold on dely
= cry at some wine press. They bring from 81
to so per ton, according to the yield, as
rule
The prettiest and cleanest employment
II ever saw is that of gathering grapes But
il Is hard on the back, and in the end is not cas-
d work OF coursc, the ugly stumps are eI
tirely hidden by the vines long before harves
time Indeed. the thousand vines and ter
4 drills and blossoms that branch out from tn
a little black stump in the earliest DAYS {
u spring have long before harvest time COT
pletely covered every inch of ground wit
vines and leaves and tendrils that reach q
most o Your waist. And the stump is on
q solid mass Of luscious grapes. They are a
!. there clingirg to the stump, not scattere
about over the ground on the long vines ths
arc to be shorn away. But you begin to fet
down in the dense mass of leaves and teudri
for your stump, and at every stump you fin
q little carload of grapes.
But, alas, notwithstanding all | can say {
do, fear my fellow laborer will cling to ii
dirty alleys of the dismal cities, bug his hatre
A of those who have t0iled and braved dang
and made life a success. He prefers the pes
house for his children to the green crap
fields and the sweet air of the roomy vest
l. joaquin Miller in The Chicago Times.
"My doctors bill for the past fol
e years has not been So" writes F. {
1t Bailey, of 30 South 9th street, Dayton. {